Good aphorisms never die, they improve with age. Shakespeare expanded on this with his own –

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.

The gist is the same – third parties are unnecessary when deep inside, you yourself know you are a slime bag. It is this fragile frame of mind that I think is at the core of the relatively modern addition to our language angst – that amorphous, indistinct feeling of dread, anxiety, or anguish. That horrid, self-critical voice at the back of your mind that won’t shut up – ever – and who’s volume is in direct proportion to the frequency with which you knowingly transgress the strict moral codes you preach to others while you think no one is looking.

This is the plague of all public moralists, especially the shameless populist ones. Naturally, this leads to hypersensitivity to any kind criticism at all. Everything, no matter how trivial or valid, becomes a personal attack and a subversion of their moral authority. Unchecked, this gives way to narcissism and paranoia – and a cultivated conspiratorial state of delusion where they have become important enough for some kind of they to go out of its way to specifically get them.

"They know I'm naked!"

This process, of course, can manifest in anybody, but the manure that feeds it and makes it truly thrive is the guilty conscience of the knowing deceiver, slanderer, manipulator and, especially, the bully that is used to life at all times going 110% their way.

I guess that I should feel flattered in some way at the growing mythology that seems to be sprouting around me in some of the less critical quarters of the world. I confess I do feel some degree of satisfaction at this – it indicates that I must be doing something right. If the only response you get to your writings is gutter insult, blacklisting, smear, others being guilted by association, and now conspiracy and folklore, you can’t help but have the feeling that you are doing something that needs doing.

Ophelia Benson demonstrating epistemic relativism

The Naked Emperor, of course, was the first cab off the rank, and has been at this for some time now, even coining new language – “it’s a hoggler”, “he’s (always a “he”) hoggling” etc. – to articulate his gnawing angst whenever reality deviates from expectation. The merit badge for outstanding achievement has to be earning a permanent ban from the baboon board and honorary place in its blacklist / Dungeon despite never having participated in any of its daily manure fights.

Yes, that’s another possibility; or H*ggle, or…lots of trolls to choose from. (Some of them know how to write better than the Doc though.)

Nice touch how she now modifies my name to H*ggle, which I guess makes it a worse word than cunt, which she has no problem using, especially in sentences that also contain Abbie.

I’m not going to confirm or deny anything to maniacs, but of course I hit google for “Dr. Cameron” and found some nice nuggets he’s deposited at freefromthoughtblogs, which I’ve saved to pastebin along with links in event of the regular purging that goes on there. I suppose again I should be flattered, as it’s quite witty and clever reading, but anyone that has been a reader of mine would be able to say in 2 seconds it’s absolutely not me. I have no chance of hiding my writing style, and I get spotted anywhere by anyone that knows me regardless of disguise – and “Dr. Cameron” is too subtle, too patient, and as far as humour goes, has a much smaller sledgehammer. Nevertheless it is recommended reading.

Of course the first and only response Ophelia ever has is to denigrate. His (or her) writing style in this instance, for lack of anything else. Which is like Mr. Magoo telling Fangio he’s a bad driver – but fully in keeping with Ophelia’s general policy of spit first, think later. Eew. I feel soiled even thinking about the way she thinks, let alone the process that can degrade a sentient being into such a bitter, dried up and mindless old cunt1.

But of course, it all always comes back the the Baboon King – around whom the entire universe rotates. Chumpy too has gotten his dose of “it’s Franc’s fault” out of the way for this week –

I see that Franc Hoggle is still a regular reader of the blog, as “gorblimey”.

Sorry, Franc, the fantasy world in your head is not real.

Pot or kettle this time around? Chumpy, I’m not the one jumping at shadows. Nor selling my dignity to earn the shallow affections of vapid talking pigs – which, ultimately, is what has brought you under the scrutiny you so richly deserve after pumping out bilious demagoguery free from accountability for all these years. Now that you’re expected to be able to back up your chest beating baboonery with substance, you’re getting the paranoid twitches? I suppose that’s all my fault too. Maybe it is. That would make me feel warm inside. But I’m not one to go leaping to conclusions on the strength of the scent of some soiled panties…

The Naked One was referring to some other baboon board blow-in on another of his trademarked yellow journalism tabloid pieces where he again skates into dangerous territory: balancing on that razor’s edge between mindless juvenile titillation and offending the reactionary fembot harpies. But hey, ratings, not integrity, are what count. Damn the torpedoes –

As a college professor, I am pleased to see a site that monitors and evaluates the accuracy of our work. I speak, of course, of Blackboards in Porn, the site that proofreads the blackboards in the background of porn movies set in classrooms. Somebody has to do it.

Oh dear, you can smell a train wreck can’t you? So could whoever is apparently me –

gorblimey says:

15 October 2011 at 6:46 am

I sense a replay of the Bachmann hotdog incident. It will be all witticism for 40-50 comments, then a skepchick will reprimand you because its “not funny” and its “rape apologist humor” and you and your baboons will turn 180 degrees in “independently minded” unison and start expressing your outrage in chorus. ssdd.

Meh. What is the point of denying anything to those that are convinced of your guilt anyway (hint: I speak the Queen’s english)? Especially when it’s essentially what I said 2 months ago anyway – about that exact Bachmann farce. Where The Naked One extracted cheap frat-boy laughs out of a tragic photo of Bachmann looking like she was about to deep throat a frankfurter – with much hysterical baboon tittering at PZ’s funny… Until a stern reprimand from a fembot, and then a well drilled 180° about face by the entire troop, on the head of a pin, as one. The recriminations began in chorus and Myers, the chickenshit, deleted the post. What a bastion of independent thinking.

And the surprise result here? Exactly the same thing. And to the Big Baboon, this is apparently a prediction that no one on the face of the entire planet could ever, ever make. Except me. It’s my fault. I went and socked his board… OK, if you say so Chumpy. I guess when you’re a sleazy, whore-bag sack of shit yourself, then that is the measuring stick by which you judge all others…

When you live in a sewer, you expect everyone to be as vile as yourself.

.

The Prune and the Baboon – it really is bad sitcom material. They very much deserve each other and it is entirely a good thing that both are barricaded behind the same iron curtain in the same new Soviet. But it really is a disturbing state of pathological narcissism that believes in its own infallibility and bullshit to the point that it has to concoct fairy tales to explain any criticism they encounter as an unpossible2 aberration.

Both are succumbing to the same habit all tin-pot control freaks have – blaming every anomaly on a predefined enemy regardless of logic. It’s obvious to them that any criticism can only be from an isolated maniac and could not possibly represent the wider community. They are LOVED. It is inconceivable that their behaviour could ever merit criticism of any kind. Like Becky Watson, they consider themselves exempt from the social contracts and conventions that bind the rest of us together in social cohesion. They are above such petty consideration – and the skeptic and godless communities owe them allegiance. They are entitled.

Lucky for them I exist – I can be blamed for everything.

Problem is, I have a wide enough readership to know different. I also have no control over a baboon horde like Myers does – unfortunately the people here and others outside the sealed-from-reality aquarium of freefromthoughtblogs are their own people and act with their own volition. What they do elsewhere is none of my concern and I certainly don’t order them about. I just provide information – which surprisingly, after months of Pharyngudrone dung flinging, has not had one single claim debunked.

Sooner or later, the Prune and the Baboon will have to come to terms with the fact that I am not a deranged loner, and that I am just the tip of the iceberg of the godless and skeptic movements that have had an absolute gutful of the propaganda, slander, bullshit and thuggery from folks that have seized control of the stage and are little more than authoritarian fascists wanting to force their own brand of neo-puritanism and faux morality down everyone’s throats as their own secular sharia.

As a taste of things to come from the Baboon Empire and its hangers on, you can now view existing calls for the censorship and shutdown of a perceived opposing, therefore “enemy”, blog that commits the crime of dissent –

I do think that the buck stops with Abbie Smith, those other clowns don’t have blogs that anyone reads unless they can promote their shit via ERV, so if she closes comments, the haters will fade into obscurity. If it takes a campaign to NatGeo to achieve that, I’m in.

I have written a post supporting SC’s notion that the escalation allowed to go on on ERV wrt Ophelia Benson has to stop. (SC, I tried to comment on your blog, but it still not lend itself to commenting easily)

Where amongst other deceptive and malicious nonsense, the claims are made that the dissenting parties are not only potential dangers to greater society (equivalent to car bombers), but have been making direct threats at individuals like the Talking Prune. Of course, without any kind of corroboration, but plenty of convenience store quote manipulation.

The picture that is painted is pretty clear – that PZ Myers, Pharyngula, Freethoughtblogs.com and associated detritus not only do not have anything even remotely to do with mainstream skepticism, atheism or traditional Freethought, but are an authoritarian, pro-censorship, anti-enlightenment cult that want to dictate their perverted faux morality to the various communities involved, and are quite prepared to use whatever means are available to enforce their version of order on the rest of us.

The ball is entirely in your court Myers – either you endorse and support this kind of behaviour, and thereby confirm you are an abject hypocrite and self-serving populist manipulator making a power grab – or you don’t. Simple enough question that demands an answer, and silence will only imply tacit approval.

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15 Responses to “PZ Myers – Barking At Shadows”

Where I disagree with you, and I do, it is usually on peripheral issues, unrelated to the topic at hand, or if they are related, too trivial about which to give a toss.
I agree with much of this post, as it is a succinct distillation of the fallout from the trigger Watson’s revealed lies. The straw that broke the camel’s back, as it were.
You are especially correct about you being but the most vocal tip of an enormous iceberg, if my many skeptical friends are anything to go by.
I poll them to be 90/10 in favour of your position. And every one the 10% no only what has been fed to them by Skepchick & FreeOfThoughtBogs.
(The sex ratio of my inquisitorial quest was about 50/50, for what that is worth)

Note: All of the potential complainers are anonymous, and employ cowardly nom-de-keyboards, unlike you and I, for example.
I am prepared to wager that secretly Ass. Prof. Myers is wishing that he could hide behind a fake identity as well, to escape the well-deserved opprobrium to which he is due, for allowing his ego to eclipse and extinguish his skepticism as well as swamp his principles in a tide of immoral slime that pours forth from his Frankenstein-like whored-creations, who relentlessly haunt him.

I don’t know there, Michael Kingsford Gray. I’m not too sure PeeZus does. Near as I can tell, he actually does buy his own press. Meh.

Good write-up, Franc.

Oh yeah, I disagree with some people on some issues some of the time over at Abbie’s. If it’s relevant to the discussion, I bring it up. If it’s a side issue that in my estimation stands a greater chance of being more than natural thread drift, I leave it be. Or write about it at my place.

Then there are people over at Abbie’s who only ever say something I agree with by complete happenstance. Like Porn and Byron; it’s why I for the most part don’t address them. Feed not the trolls and all.

Another fine installment Franc. Thanks! I share your propensity to search for the facts of a situation. Most people find this trait to be rude. If being rude is the same as pointing out error of fact then I confess… I must be rude.

It is my rude pursuit of fact that gets me booted off sites and gets me in trouble with distant relatives who promote woo woo thinking.

I used to think the Baboon King was a strong factual thinker, but I now agree with your findings; he is a neo-puritan and is happy to tell the rest of the world how to behave. His monkey hoard piles the worst insults imaginable upon their “enemies” and then squawks like little babies at anyone who fires back.

Y’know, all I’m doing is being a skeptic. Which I have not had much interest to be a card carrier for – I just observe and love seeing Randi tear frauds a new one. But there is no skepticism dealing with these clowns from the people that should be doing it – LIKE YOU NOVELLA FOR A START.

And they are now stepping well and truly out of bounds – they are fascists. Pure and simple. Nothing ambiguous about it at all anymore. Jackboots and secular sharia – that is the grand vision for us all.

One thing that I appreciate about some of what you’ve said is that you don’t make the stupid mistake of referring to “sharia law”. That grates my nerves in the same way as “ATM Machine” and “PIN Number”.

I seem to remember hearing or reading, (it is of such little consequence to my life that I made zero effort to index it for later reprisal), that Ass. Prof. S. Novella as good as admitted that he is not being skeptical when it comes to his support of Watson.
I mentally ticked the Aussie box marked “good on ya mate for being honest”, and left it at that, with a strange stomach-churning feeling of mild admiration combined with severe epistemic revulsion.
If my recollection is valid, then methinks you are being too harsh on Steven, if this is indeed the Novella to whom you refer.
He has admitted that he quarantines skepticism when it comes to anything Becky-related.
And for that bit of honesty, he must surely be congratulated.

Justicar: New Scientist magazine has a term for your acronym frustration:
“RAS redundant acronym syndrome”, which is a recursive loop of multi-dimensional proportions!
They present even deeper recursions: acronyms of acronyms of acronyms. I cannot recall an example, but they are recorded on the New Scientist website under the amusing “Feedback” column.

Yeah, I do mean Steven Novella. I do expect more. I do expect him to see things for what they are. Same goes for randi.org and their continued support. CFI is a lost cause, every bit as bad as the baboons themselves. But the time is past where the other “figureheads” can turn a blind eye and for it to be excusable.

Michael Kingsford Grey –“I seem to remember hearing or reading, (it is of such little consequence to my life that I made zero effort to index it for later reprisal), that Ass. Prof. S. Novella as good as admitted that he is not being skeptical when it comes to his support of Watson.”

I would love for that to be true. If you would please search for that, I would greatly appreciate it. Dr. Novella’s reaction (or lack of) has never made sense to me. I used to think it was because RW brought in so many listeners, and he stepped lightly because he did not want to appear sexist, as the reason she was invitied to join them was to get a woman’s perspective. Her misandry and media whoring has become so out of control at this point that I can’t fathom why he does not take action.

Should I stumble across it again, I shall post a link to the source here.
The one thing that I have no intention of doing is a specific search just for that item. You may have some sympathy for my decision!
It was most likely on the thread maintained by Novella that announced the then upcoming 24hours of skepticism, in which I politely informed him that I would not be listening if Watson had anything to do with it, and the consequent shit-storm that followed.

Have to hand it to you there Franc, absolutely nailed it. None of this will get through to a hardcore Pharyngulite. They are so accustomed to dealing with accusations of closed-mindedness and religiousness from woo merchants and godbots that their responses are now formulaic. There’s no evaluation of outside criticism on it’s merits; critics are slotted neatly into pre-defined boxes and given the stock responses.

Their status as the gold standard in skepticism is taken as a given so you must be a crank if you have a problem with them. The idea that they are not the centre of the skeptic universe is unthinkable.

Something that I’ve picked up on is that if they can’t get the upper hand on an issue they will try to find an unrelated weakness and go for it. If succesful they declare you unworthy to take seriously. Look at what they did to Bluharmony, for instance. They sensed insecurity and went for the jugular.

Yeah, they’re like hyenas – they only feed on animals they sense are weak. Myers is a prime example in the way he pounced on Adrienne Myers (no relation) only after she exhibited weakness – then he was brave enough to go straight for her jugular. Not a peep prior to that – though Adrienne has been blogging this longer than I have – but once she displayed vulnerability, *pow* The Baboon King is there to spray the territory as conquered.

[…] and outright denialism of even the most basic realities. Abuse, circular argument, deception, jumping at shadows and gibberish – that is the sum of everything the Big Baboon has been able to offer to […]